Let there be light

Now that the clocks have gone forward an hour we can really get cracked on with things. An extra hour's daylight means you can do something most evenings now rather than having to wait for the weekends. I finished the last of my parsnip drums today and am now waiting for the parsnip seeds to chit so that they can be placed in the stations. I'm checking the seeds every few hours as once they start to chit they need putting into the compost quickly before the roots get too long. I like them to be only a millimetre or two long.

For my borehole mix for parsnips I went back to calcified seaweed but found the granules to be a lot bigger than they used to be. They are as hard as ball bearings and no way they would go through a sieve, so I needed a way of reducing them to a fine powder. I started by hitting them with a hammer but after several pinged up my nostrils, some half-blinded me and others rattled my tonsils I realised I needed a better method.

I came up with this idea of putting the granules inside a fine mesh bag that some onion sets had come in. I could then spread them out inside the bag onto the metal lid of a biscuit tin and bash them with a hammer. The granules broke up into fine dust that fell through the bag into the lid, and it only took a minute or two to do each 3oz mix.

I also managed to get two drums set up ready for some long beet, the two blue barrels in the centre of the photo. Set upon a wooden framework to give me extra depth I filled them with a mix of old potato peat, compost and sand. The boreholes will be done early May. The black metal drum on the path is one of two that I've cut the tops off with a jigsaw and is upside down to allow the lubricant residue inside to drain away. I will then cut the bottoms out too and make sure the sides are thoroughly cleaned before filling with more compost and sand, setting them onto the prepared bed at the bottom of the shot. I hope to be able to grow about 30 long beet in these four drums.